This was what transpired: I had a patient last week, a nice, older male, armed with a full set of nice, older male "family values." Towards the end of our encounter, he told me happily of a story he had heard on the news. To be brief, the story centered around a young pregnant woman with cancer, who forewent chemotherapy in order to deliver a healthy baby. Due to the delay in treatment, she died soon after giving birth, a decision my patient lauded and defended. Lest I doubt his thoughts on the matter, he added: "Isn't that just great? So many women would be selfish and put themselves first, and so many would even throw their babies away and have an abortion!"
Now, who knows what particular instance this man was referencing. There are countless instances of pregnant women choosing to put the well-being of their fetuses above their own. Choosing being the operative word. All well and good. Yet once this decision becomes expected of women, once we as a society make the Rick Santorum-approved assumption that a woman - endowed with hopes, dreams, life experiences, the abilities to enjoy life an to contemplate death - is worth less than the fetus she is carrying, we have come to a dangerous conclusion.
There is already a disturbing history of Catholic hospitals (which, by the way, comprise 13% of healthcare providers in the U.S.) denying life-saving care to pregnant women. It is the Church's official policy not to provide therapeutic abortions even in cases of ectopic pregnancy. Under the auspices of the so-called "Protect Life Act," these hospitals could continue to withhold treatment while still receiving federal dollars! Catholic hospitals which do perform such procedures may face loss of funding, excommunication, and general Catholic self-righteousness.
Fittingly, just as I had this issue on the brain, I interviewed this morning at Georgetown's (Catholic) School of Medicine. After a long speech about Georgetown's philosophy of "cura personalis," the "respect for the individual humanity of every patient," we sat in on a class on, of all things, complications of pregnancy. The descriptions of ectopic and molar pregnancy were not followed by mention of treatment, in good Catholic form. Question: Could I really attend this school?
Answer: Even if I don't, society's views on motherhood and the rights of women extend, alas, far beyond the nunnery walls.
